Google asks MPs for ‘flexible copyright exemption’ for AI

OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants members of Parliament to include a “flexible copyright exemption” for AI and machine learning copying in the Copyright Act, adding to a chorus of voices from digital companies calling on Parliament to address the issue. Jason Kee, Google Canada’s public policy and government relations counsel, told MPs Monday that it’s not clear under the current Copyright Act if it’s permitted for machines to copy and learn from copyrighted material. He gave the example of an automated translation system that analyzes and learns from a collection of books. “Unless there is an exception to allow this technical copying, processing and storage, machine learning could infringe copyright, even though the algorithm is merely learning from data, and not interfering with any market for that data or impacting the authors,” he said. “It is unclear whether this activity would fall within existing exceptions, putting the Canadian Government’s substantial investments in artificial intelligence and Canada’s significant competitive advantage in this field at risk.” MPs on the House of Commons industry, science and technology committee have been undertaking a statutory review of the Copyright Act, which digital giants Google, Facebook Inc. and Spotify Inc. appeared at Monday. Google is one of a number of internet stakeholders now that have warned the current copyright legal framework doesn’t cover AI. A submission sent into the committee from the Internet Association last week, a group representing dozens of digital companies including Airbnb Inc., Microsoft Inc., Uber Technologies Inc., Facebook, Netflix Inc. and also Google, argues that Canada should follow Japan and the European Union’s lead by adopting similar copyright exceptions for AI. Japan had amended its own copyright legislation in 2009 to add an exception for “information analysis,” which was expanded again this year. That call echoes what Montreal-based artificial intelligence research startup Element AI, and what the BSA Software Alliance, which includes members such as Apple Inc. and IBM, had told the committee last month. “Compiling data sets and training an artificial intelligence almost always requires making one or more incidental copies of the data and may also require some manipulation or alteration, which can subject AI researchers to copyright liability under current law,” the Internet Association’s committee brief reads. “Just as copyright law does not allow owners to sue a person for reading a book in a library or for remembering the plot of a movie after seeing it, it should not enable owners to bring an infringement suit based on a computer having analyzed and extracted underlying data or concepts from that same book or movie.” Meanwhile, a group of copyright academics –– who said Parliament should should consider the best way to safeguard text and data mining as it studies the Act –– is warning not to grant AI-created works copyright. That ask was reflected in a a joint-brief submitted to Parliament last week by University of Windsor professor Myra Tawfik, which was signed by 11 Canadian intellectual property law experts. “To the extent that a physical person exercises sufficient skill and judgment in the way that they use software or other technologies to produce an original work, the usual copyright principles would apply to vest copyright with that individual,” it said. “However, where the output does not result from the exercise of skill and judgment on the part of the individual, a work produced by the technology itself should be afforded no copyright protection.” Facebook Inc. Canada’s head of public policy Kevin Chan had also appeared at the committee hearing Monday, arguing for the status quo on copyright. “We think that the balance is struck pretty well between rights holders and users and folks who want to innovate with content,” he said. — With reporting by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Google asks MPs for ‘flexible copyright exemption’ for AI

Broadcast | November 27, 2018

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Google asks MPs for ‘flexible copyright exemption’ for AI

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